Malcolm and Martin – Life Doesn’t Frighten Me

Styliztik Jones and KB Imean team up with DJ Revolution to enlighten and entertain.

When Styliztik Jones and KB Imean, the rappers who make up Malcolm and Martin, dared to reinterpret the classic BDP album Criminal Minded on the well-received mixtape the group released last year, the duo showed respect for hip-hop’s so-called glory days as well as an interest in aligning their own throwback sound with vintage boom-bap. Their earnest but enjoyable debut, Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, further bridges the generation gap even more. It’s packed with sturdy, nimble rhyming (“Hustle,” “Heritage”) and sample-heavy, soul-drenched production largely courtesy of DJ Revolution who even has an instrumental scratch-and-cut track (“Do It Again”) ever-present on 1980s rap albums. The MC-pair do their best to enlighten and entertain—lamenting today’s dance-craze happy rap (“Bamboozled”), critiquing a bogus American school system (“Lunchtyme Cyphers”), and scolding bootylicious beauties (“Sista Big Butt”). Chanting on the hook of “Movement Music,” they take their mission seriously: “This is much more than music to us/ this is beauty and strife/ and if you know about the music then you know about life.” Their rap ethos may harken back to a bygone era, but Malcolm and Martin manage to sound more vital and necessary than ever.